The Development Co-operation Report is the key annual reference document for statistics and analysis on trends in international aid. This special edition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC).

This edition opens with a Foreword by OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría and a Preface by United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It features contributions from noted actors in development, who have helped in their various capacities to shape thinking on the important issues and needs that face us today.

In his Introduction, DAC Chair J. Brian Atwood highlights the role the DAC has played over the past 50 years and signals its continuing relevance in meeting the challenges ahead. Chapters by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka reflect on lessons learned over the past 50 years of development co-operation. Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, Hernando de Soto, President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Sadako Ogata, President of the Japan International Co-operation Agency, and R.K. Pachauri, Chair of the International Panel on Climate Change, provide insights on the challenges of gender equality, empowerment, inclusive development and climate change, respectively. Former DAC Chair Richard Manning and former Director General of the French Development Agency Jean-Michel Severino look ahead to future challenges for official development assistance.

This annex on the profiles and efforts of providers of development assistance has been expanded to include data that has never been included in this report before, on core versus non-core flows, aid untying, ODA in support of gender equality, flows targeted to meet the Rio Conventions and humanitarian aid.

Note on Figure A.2: This figure compares the DAC Secretariat’s 2005 simulation with the 2010 outcome. It does not imply that any particular donor had a specific target for 2010 in 2005. For example, in 2005 Japan had a target only for 2005-9, while the UK had a target for 2013. In the case of the UK, it subsequently defined a target for 2010 of 0.56%, and met this.

The special 50th anniversary statistical annex takes a look at trends in development flows over the past 50 years, highlighting, among others things, ODA compared to other flows; ODA as a percent of gross national income (GNI) per capita; distribution of ODA by donor, region, type of country and sector; and aid quality indicators.

On 4 October 2010, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría introduced the Development Co-operation Report 2011. DAC Chair J. Brian Atwood moderates a panel discussion with former DAC Chair Richard Manning and former Director General of the French Co-operation Agency Jean-Michel Severino on "The Future of Development Co-operation". They were joined by Mary-Anne Addo, Director, Ghana Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and Louis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank.